Saturday, December 19, 2009

Wow! I've been gone all day, but I'm finally back and able to post and pick the winners for the science cookie cutter giveaway.

I had been tied up by the construction of a christmas present that required "some assembly" for most of the day. The gift ended up taking my husband, brother-in-laws and I over three hours to assemble. In my humble opinion, 'some assembly required' is a bit of an understatement when four able bodied people can't complete something in under 3 hours.

So these cookie cutters! I have to say I am very surprised about how many people were actually interested in this giveaway. I expected maybe 50, not over 200. I'm really digging the nerd cookie love here, folks.

So this is how we're going to do it. I'm going to give away both the mouse and the Drosophila. Since roughly 1/250 odds are terrible and I really want to give away cutters to as many of you awesome folks as possible. So I'm making two lists, one for folks interested in the fruit fly and another for the mouse. If you didn't state a preference, I flipped a coin to choose for you. I then used a random integer generator to pick a cell on my spread sheet from each column to select the winners.

So, without further ado, lets do this:

unexpectedthings won the Drosophila"Drosophila!! My twin sister studies these little guys and is always sending me emails about her triumphs of changing their eye color or curling their wings using mad scientist techniques. I'd love to put her to work making delicious fly cookies to out-geek the rest of the family."

Colleen won the mouse cutter"Oh, my students would LOVE to bite into these cookies! We're not supposed to have parties in our classrooms, but this would be "science"-related, so it would have to be OK, wouldn't it? ; ) I like the mouse the best!"

I don't see emails in your profiles, so if you would please email me your mailing addresses (my email is listed on the left in my blogger profile) and then post a reply in this thread saying you've done so (so I know it is you). I'll carefully package up the little cutters and send them on their way.

For everyone else: I know some folks asked me to post a link to where you could find these cutters should they not be picked. Well I searched around trying to find these cutters and was not able to locate the mouse. I did however find the Drosophila (for $1!). Though, Sur la Table has missidentified it as a bee, but I will forgive them since I figure their staff lacks a trained cookie entomologist to properly identify their cutters. Anyway, here is the link: Drosophila Cutter.

As for you folks eager for a mouse cutter just like mine, I'm sorry I cannot find the exact one online: I did stumble across Mouse #1 and Mouse #2 cookie cutters on amazon. They are not quite as cute as mine though, which is why I went out and bought 5 more mice today. I'm going to give these away as well.

(Edit: Ronnie found the mice online: LINK. Jacqueline also found them here: LINK. Bea found it here as well: LINK)

So... if you're interested in a second round of mouse cookie cutter giveaways, go ahead and post a comment below and I'll pick 5 winners next Saturday.

Oooh a second chance at one of those adorable mouse cookie cutter? I am IN!

I may not be a researcher but in my college years the experiment that I most vividly recall reading about had to do with teaching chimpanzees how to free base. I don't suppose there is a cookie cutter for that? Lol

Ooh, I'd love to get the mouse cookie cutter. I'm a scientist married to a scientist with friends who are mostly scientists - they would truly grok these cookies :-) Hubby already wants me to make him the gel electorphoresis cookies for his birthday. Mice would be a plus! TFS!

I am amazed at your creations. My office mate and I enjoy checking out the goodies. I came across your site by going to next blog and I am glad I found it.A mouse cutter would be fun. I could make some special treats for my cats. :>) I have been looking for a flamingo cutter to make cookies for my friend. Thanks again for taking the time to post and share your creations. It has inspired me to think about trying to work with fondant sometime. Best wishes for the holidays.

Oh, those mice are so cute! I used to work in a lab that studied mouse development. I'm afraid I wasn't cut out for such work and had to move into a bacterial lab. The mice were just too cute - I wanted to take them home as pets rather than use them for research!

Found the Drosophila cutter at my local cake store, and they also called it a "bee" cookie cutter. Went to one of the links listed above for the mouse cutter and they had them on sale for $1.09. Ordered one, can't wait to make them for my students. For Christmas I am in charge of dessert for the kids, so making your binary and brain cupcakes. Should be a big hit!

I've been a lurker, but now it is time to post ^_^ I'd love a mousey cookie cutter to make delicious mousey cookies. Thanks for the opportunity! I actually came on again today to find your potato bread recipe... going to give it a try.

I'd love some mice cookie cutters! The sad thing about living in France is that people just don't know about cookies. Some bakeries try to do cookies, but they're just not right. If I had mice, I could make some nice rolled cookies and treat the whole lab (even the most miserably failed batch of oatmeal-raisin is a big hit with them - I will try and show everyone what real iced cookies are all about).

I just finished a big mouse aortic banding experiment at work. (We moved the last day up so we wouldn't be finishing on Christmas Eve!). Western blotting and RT-PCR await us on the fourth of the new year, but mouse cookies might make the work go more smoothly.

A comment on your drosophila cookies: wouldn't they be a good cookie to use pepparkakor dough with? It'd be a lovely medium brown background.

I run the undergraduate research office at my university, and my students are completely in love with your science cookies, which I made for our holiday open house. You are a goddess, and I would love a cookie cutter. :)

edusinberre here (not sure what name will display due to login trouble). It took me forever, but I finally stumbled on the winner announcement and sent an address . . . hope I'm not too late. Either way, it was an awesome foray into science cookies!